Preview

Italian Redemption of Cinema: Neorealism from Bazin to Godard, the

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
7637 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Italian Redemption of Cinema: Neorealism from Bazin to Godard, the
In 1952, the Parisian journal Films et Documents codified the "ten points of neorealism" and, with this definitive gesture, pronounced neorealism a school.1 By contrast, Italian critics have always seemed reluctant to acknowledge neorealism as a movement and so have never produced a manifesto or program for an ideological faction. Neorealism in Italy may be said rather to encompass two somewhat different meanings. The term comes to be associated, on the one hand, with the project of reformulating the nation's identity in the period immediately after World War II and, on the other, with the notion of a privileged instrument for the recuperation of reality either in its immediacy (Zavattini) or in a critically mediated form (Aristarco).2
Cesare Zavattini and Guido Aristarco may be regarded as the two chief Italian expositors of neorealism. Zavattini worked as the screenwriter for Vittorio De Sica and authored several of the masterpieces of neorealist cinema including Ladri di biciclette (1948) and Miracolo a Milano (1950). Aristarco founded the journal Cinema Nuovo and encouraged the idea of Italian cinema as a natural progression fron neorealism to what might be called critical realism. Interested in promoting a realist agenda reminiscent of Lukács's throughout the arts, Aristarco contended that the descriptive approach of early neorealism was too simplistic and ought to be replaced by a more critical method. In Visconti's Senso (1954) he identified the exemplary expression of a realist poetics informed by historical criticism.
With respect to periodization, neorealism generally is supposed to start with Visconti's Ossessione (1942), to culminate in Rossellini's Roma citta aperta (1945) and De Ska's Ladri di biciclette, and to begin to decay after De Sica's Umberto D (1952), which Guglielmo Monetti has portrayed as the last neorealist masterpiece.3 Whereas French critics such as Bazin and Deleuze have ascribed to neorealism the achievement of a unifying

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    In the period 1896 – 1915, the condition of Italy was relatively in a terrible state in many ways with various political, economic and social problems that hindered the country’s progress. Italy’s Liberal Governments during this period were generally very unsuccessful in dealing with these inherited and growing problems clearly contributing to the end of Liberalism in Italy. More so, the Liberal Government under the rule of Giolitti saw Italy progressing in some circumstances regarding the socio-economic concerns. Nonetheless, it is very comprehensible that the Liberal Governments lacked solving the problems that they faced.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    IWT1 Task 1

    • 816 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Our second period and style of art we will look at is Surrealism. Surrealism was an art movement that took off in the 1920’s in France and was used to display art or life in a dream like or altered universe aspect. The art style uses elements of surprise, oddities, and unexpected contrasts to achieve the style of Surrealism. Unlike the counter part style of Realism, Surrealism was used in society as an escape from the everyday pictures and life that was being lived. Surrealism really stated to pickup popularity in the 1930’s as it started to have an effect on society in all forms of media such as books, art, film and music. (Wikipedia)…

    • 816 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Citations: Finocchio, Ross. Nineteenth-Century French Realism. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Web. 20 October 2013…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Galitz, Kathryn Calley. "Romanticism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm (October 2004) [29.4.12]…

    • 3546 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Riwt 1

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Lets go back… To a new era, widespread and influential for paintings and the other visual arts, a reaction against the sensuous and frivolously decorative Rococo style that dominated European art from the 1720s on. Beginning in the 1760s, Neoclassicism arose, reached its height in the 1780s and ‘90s during the French Revolution and lasted until about the 1850s. Neoclassicism was impacted by the exploration and excavation of the buried Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii; the excavations of which began in 1738 and 1748, respectively. It was because of these “new” discoveries that people wanted to revive the past and took interest in the classical forms and ideas that started the neoclassical era. It was the combination of new and “classical” that made artist want to convey a serious moral such as justice, honor, and patriotism. Ideally, this style portrays an array of knowledge so vast that it leads to enlightenment.…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The aim of the study was to explore the impact of Brutalism in Italy, in particular how it was readjusted to the Italian…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    References: Anonymous (2010) Futurism: Futurist Manifesto, Suite Vollard Enrico Prampolini, General Books LLC, New York Anonymous Berghaus, G. (2009) Futurism and the Technological Imagination, Rodopi, Amsterdam Blum, C S. (1996) The Other Modernism: F.T. Marinetti’s Futurist Fiction of Power, University of California Press, California Bru, S., and Martens, G. (2006) The Invention of Politics in the European Avant-garde, Rodolphi, Amsterdam Harrison, A. (2003) D.H. Lawrence and Italian Futurism: A Study of Influence, Rodopi, Harte, T. (2009) Fast Forward The Aesthetics and Ideology of Speed in Russian Avant-Garde Culture, University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin Hays, M. (2000) Architecture Theory Since 1968, MIT Press, Cambridge Henning, M. (2006) Museums, Media, and Cultural Theory. McGraw-Hill International, London Smith, T E. (1997) Invisible Touch: Modernism and Masculinity, University of Chicago Press, Chicago Strickland, C., and Boswell J (2007) The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post Modern. Andrews McMeel Publishing, Riverside, NJ…

    • 2121 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Italy and Government Mla

    • 1710 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The social lives of the people in Italy have gone through many changes during the 20th century with new art forms, more religious freedoms, education, and the family…

    • 1710 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Neoclassicism can be defined as the revival of the classical style in art, literature, architecture and music. It was an influential style in art during the 18th and 19th century that lasted from the 1760’s until the 1850’s. Neoclassicism rose in reaction to the Rocco and Baroque styles that were popular during the middle of the 18th century in the United States and Western Europe especially France. Neoclassicism was the result of a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture as a result of archeological discoveries of buried Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which brought about new inspiration. The Neoclassical era was also called the Age of Enlightenment as the Industrial Revolution was taking place. There were many new inventions and this lead to the growth of many factories. With new inventions, there was new knowledge, hence the reference to enlightenment and “neo” which means new. During the Neoclassical period, artists also focused on moral revivalism due to admiration for philosophers like Aristotle and Plato and also reflected on the Renaissance era. Neoclassical artists looked to the past as a guide to the present because of the assumption…

    • 2245 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Italian Renaissance was a reawakening of literature and art, as well as many of the ideas of previous cultures (“The Impact,” 2016). Although they were not the only ideas to be revived, Greco-Roman Classical beliefs were perhaps the most prominent. The revivification of ideas such as humanism and Platonism and their effects on art make the influence of the Greco-Roman Classical period blatantly obvious in the philosophy of the Renaissance period.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mise En Scene

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It certainly is neorealist, by all the principles one can deduce from the best Italian films since 1946. The story is from the lower classes, almost populist: an incident in the daily life of a worker. Truly an insignificant even a banal incident: a workman spends a whole day looking in vain in the streets of Rome for the bicycle someone has stolen from him. This bicycle has been the tool of his trade, and if he doesn't find it he will be again unemployed. Late in the day, after hours of fruitless wandering, he too tries to steal a bicycle. Apprehended and then released, he is as poor as ever, but now he fools the shame of having sunk to the…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Even though The Italian Renaissance lasted for a short period of time, approximately 100 years, and some give more consideration and accolades to the English Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance was a period of dramatic cultural advancement. This is seen in its revolutionary architecture design, explorations of discovery, extraordinary art, innovation of Opera, and my personal favorite Commedia dell' arte. Nearly all of Western theatre was influenced by the Italian Renaissance leaving lasting impressions all the way down to our present day.…

    • 1865 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the first decade of the 20th century, a group of young Italian painters came together under the influence of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian poet and writer. They dabbled in every medium of art including painting, sculpture, theatre and much more. Marinetti launched this movement in his Futurist Manifesto, which was published February 5, 1909. After it was published, it quickly spread to France, Germany, Russia and the Americas. This movement was the first organized, radical art movement of this century. Their manifestos were meant to shock and provoke the audience. Marinetti’s ideas came from his loath for tame virtues and tastes. His ideas were radical. He believed that it was time to create a new form of art for the people, based on the beauty of speed and the power and force of machinery. It was clear that Marinetti was trying to make Futurism break away from the past and create something completely new and compelling. The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that was upon them rather than enjoying the modern world’s comforts while disapproving the forces that made them possible. Futurism was a celebration of the machine age, glorifying war and favoring the growth of fascism. Futurist painting and sculpture were concerned with expressing movement and the dynamics of natural and man-made forms.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the mid-18th century two very different movements in art history emerged, Neoclassical and Romanticism. The ages of Neoclassicism and Romanticism spanned through the late 18th and 19th century and thrived across Europe. There are various distinctions between neoclassicism and romanticism, yet the greatest tend to fixate on style, thematic focus, and the impact of feeling. The timing of when every development was most famous is to some degree distinction, too with neoclassical thoughts generally showing up before the rise of romantics. Neoclassicisms a result of the 18th century is widely believed to be tribute to the past. People in the period values the way of life and imaginative works produced by civilization like those in ancient Greece and Rome. Romanticism, then again emerged is the 18th century as a reaction and a distinct option for style and as a result which was an appreciation of the exotic and the different. The two styles…

    • 1282 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Literature of Art

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages

    2. Neoclassicism Art was a tremendous movement in European art and architecture during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The art was an inspiration of desire to reconnect the spirit and forms of classical art from ancient Greece and Roman. Neoclassicism characteristics were serious, unemotional, and sternly heroic ("Answers.com," 2011). The social condition that may have contributed to the advent of this style was art itself a reaction of Rococo and Classical Art. Partly stimulated by the discovery of Roman ruins a Herculaneum and Pompeii, along with publication in 1755 of the highly Influential book Thought of the Imitation of Greek Work of Art, by a German art historian and scholar Johann Winckelmann, all of this revival of Neoclassical Art ("Answers.com," 2011).…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics